Cancelled Before It Began: Gerry Anderson’s The Day After Tomorrow (1975)

Gerry Anderson’s The Day After Tomorrow was a 1975 afternoon movie designed to teach Einstein’s theory of relativity, but it also acted as an open-ended pilot to a potential television series that sadly never happened.

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What Is It?

This TV movie followed two families who board the spaceship Antares to seek out new worlds to colonize because Earth’s population and environment are at critical levels.  But the ship encounters a black hole which sends it to a different universe and an unexpected set of adventures for the people on board.

Aired: 1975 (as an episode of NBC’s Special Treat afternoon series)

Created By: Gerry Anderson, Johnny Byrne

Starring: Brian Blessed, Nick Tate, Joanna Dunham, Katherine Levy

Why Didn’t it Fly?

Back in December of 1975, this odd little piece of sci fi showed up on afternoon television titled The Day After Tomorrow (not to be confused with the 1983 nuclear war TV movie The Day After).  Some might have mistaken it as a reboot of Lost in Space (though the reboot craze was still a long way off at that point), while others noted a lot of similarities to Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999 which had debuted on American television in September of that year.  Nick Tate was onboard as–who else–the pilot, and Brian Blessed (who had guest-starred on Space: 1999) was along for the ride as well.  The spaceships and music had a very similar look and feel to the Anderson show and a familiar voice acted as narrator: Ed Bishop who had starred in Anderson’s UFO back in 1970-71.

Anderson was indeed involved because this was produced by him during the break between Season 1 and 2 of Space: 1999.  It was part of an afternoon series named Special Treat aimed at teenage audiences, which NBC had started up that year.  That was designed as an educational series and NBC had approached Anderson to do an episode which would introduce Einstein’s theory of relativity.  Anderson, along with frequent Space: 1999 writer Johnny Byrne, also took this as an opportunity to produce an open-ended pilot that could lead into an ongoing series (thus the reason for the subtitle “Into Infinity” which acted as an episode title).  At that time, Anderson did not know yet whether Space: 1999 would get picked up for a second season, so he decided to take a stab at another potential sci fi series just in case.

Unfortunately, this one did not continue into its own series because it would have been a good companion show to Anderson’s other space series.  But it likely would have been an expensive show to produce and the early excitement over Space: 1999 had already cooled at that point (and the Star Wars craze was still two years away).

Should It Be Rebooted?

I re-watched this movie recently and it does not hold up well to the test of time, just like Space: 1999. It might have worked if it became a series in the ’70s, though the budget may have kept it from last very long.  It is still a fun watch, though, and there was some potential with the concept. Too many other shows have explored a similar premise since then, so I don’t know that this relic could add much new if it was revived. It is not well-remembered, either, so it does not have much name recognition. But Gerry Anderson’s name is still a bankable property, so perhaps they could emphasize that and bring this one back in some format. I know that I would certainly tune in for it.

Where Can You Watch It?

The Day After Tomorrow is included on The Lost Worlds of Gerry Anderson set which is available in DVD and SVOD.  For those Space: 1999 fans who never caught this one, it is definitely worth giving it a look as it acts sort of like a lost episode of that show, and it would have been interesting to have a cross-over with the two (perhaps Captain Harry Masters was Alan Carter’s long lost twin).  You can read more about The Day After Tomorrow on the excellent Fanderson site at this link.  There is a novelization of the pilot written by Gregory L. Norris in 2017 that is available in paperback and on Kindle.

Read about more Sci Fi TV pilots that did not fly at this link.

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